As Mayor, Carmen Sabatino did not raise water rates because it was not necessary, balanced four budgets, spent less than city revenues, collected past due developer fees, cut $90 thousand dollars a year in newspaper advertising, and used the money to provide for public safety. How about that!

To Todd Aaronson, it must have seemed like the perfect storm, with prevailing winds in his favor. For months on end he’d used his expertise at marketing to take the pulse and temperature of Modesto’s District Three, the bloc carved out by the City’s decision to adopt district elections. He’d acquired an “A” list of endorsements no one else could hope to match. Best of all, his opponent wasn’t an incumbent, at least not in the usual sense.